2 slides Credit: Universal Images Group via Getty
A 300-Year-Old Tale Of One Woman s Quest To Stop A Deadly Virus By
Three hundred years ago, in 1721, England was in the grips of a smallpox epidemic. There were people dying all over the place, says Isobel Grundy, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Alberta in Canada. Social life came to a standstill â and all the things we ve suddenly become familiar with again.
But as Londoners cowered inside their homes, there was a woman who knew how to end the outbreak. Her name was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and she had learned a technique from women in the distant Ottoman Empire that could stop the pox in its tracks.
What Is Fluvoxamine? OCD Drug Could Be Used to Treat COVID
On 3/8/21 at 9:49 AM EST
An anti-depressant medication used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may also be effective at treating some COVID cases, scientists say.
The drug fluvoxamine, commonly sold under the brand name Luvox, has emerged as a candidate for early treatment of the disease, with studies suggesting it could prevent some people s symptoms progressing to the point of needing hospitalization.
Fluvoxamine is a type of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) which alters how chemicals used by nerves in the human brain communicate.
Read more
These chemicals, known as neurotransmitters, are released by the body s nerves before attaching to other nerves. Experts believe an imbalance of neurotransmitters can cause psychiatric disorders such as depression.
Three new, fast-spreading variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 can evade antibodies that work against the original form that sparked the pandemic, new research shows.
With few exceptions, whether the antibodies were produced in response to vaccination or natural infection, or were purified antibodies intended for use as drugs, researchers found they needed more antibody to neutralize the new variants.
The findings, from laboratory-based experiments, suggest that COVID-19 drugs and vaccines developed thus far may become less effective as the new variants become dominant, as experts say they inevitably will. The researchers looked at variants from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Brazil.
Fluvoxamine and COVID-19: How OCD Drug Might Help Treat COVID-19 health.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from health.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.